Edward M. Brooke: Congressional medal

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President Barack Obama, who has spoken often of ‘the arc of history,’’ today honored one of the men who paved a path for the president’s own historic election.

The president conferred the Congressional Gold Medal on former Sen. Edward M. Brooke, the first African American elected to the Senate by popular vote. With Brooke, 90, seated behind him in the Capitol Rotunda, the president joined ranking Republican and Democratic lawmakers in granting an award ‘bestowed by this body of which he was an esteemed member, presented in this place where he moved the arc of history, surrounded by so many, myself included, who have followed the trail that he blazed.’

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